BOOM!
The warehouse district exploded in green light as Ben Tennyson slammed into a cargo container, the impact denting steel. The Omnitrix flickered, its countdown beeping its final seconds before reverting him to human
form.
"You cannot run forever, Tennyson!" Vilgax's voice boomed across the abandoned lot, his massive form silhouetted against the night
sky. The warlord's new armor crackled with it's shiny technology, an awesome sight that amazed even Ben.
Ben rolled behind cover, gasping. "Who's running? I'm just... strategically repositioning myself!" He slapped the Omnitrix, but the watch glowed red. "Come on, come on!"
Gwen's voice crackled through his comm. "Ben, get out of there! Kevin and I are two minutes away!"
"Make it one minute!" Ben sprinted as an energy blast vaporized his cover. The warehouse sat on top of some kind of ley line convergence, Gwen had mentioned it
earlier. Something about magical energy intersecting here, which was why they'd
lured Vilgax to this location in the first place.
Ka-BAAM!
Vilgax landed in his path with earth-shaking force.
"The Omnitrix will finally be mine."
"Dude, you need new material." Ben's watch finally glowed green. His hand moved to the dial—
WHOOSH!
An explosion of purple light erupted between them. Not from Vilgax. Not from Ben.
But from the ground itself.
Reality tore open like fabric, a wound in space screaming with colors that shouldn't exist. The ley lines beneath them had ignited, reacting to something in Vilgax's armor. Energy lashed out in whip-like
Tentacles form.
"What did you do?" Ben shouted over the deafening noise.
"This is not my doing!" Even Vilgax sounded
uncertain, backing away from the expanding portal.
But the rift had gravity, pulling everything toward its swirling maw. Ben's feet left the ground. He grabbed for anything, finding only air. The Omnitrix blazed with warning symbols he'd never seen before. Red, gold,
white, all flashing in panicked sequence.
"BEN!" Gwen's distant scream was the last thing he heard from Earth.
The portal swallowed him whole.
.
.
.
Falling through a mix of dimensions, Ben's mind struggled to process the impossible scenery. Worlds flickered past like television
channels. A desert of glass, an ocean of stars, a city built from song. The Omnitrix burned hot against his wrist, its AI screaming warnings in languages both mechanical and organic.
In desperation, Ben slammed the dial.
Green light exploded around him as he transformed, but something felt wrong. The familiar sensation of becoming XLR8 twisted mid-shift. The portal's energy interfered, corrupting the transformation.
Then impact.
Trees. Branches. Pain.
Ben crashed through a canopy of leaves, bouncing between limbs before slamming into mossy ground. His transformation failed, leaving him in his human form and groaning. Above, the portal sealed shut.
"Okay," Ben wheezed, staring up at unfamiliar stars and moons through the trees. "Okay. That's new."
He tried his comm. But heard only static. Tried his cell phone. No signal, not even a "searching" icon, just nothing. The Omnitrix
flickered weakly, its display showing symbols that made no sense. The dial
still worked, he could feel that much, but several alien icons were grayed out.
Including.....
"No." Ben tapped the Omnitrix frantically.
"No, no, no. Alien X, come on!"
The celestialsapien icon remained dark and unresponsive.
A howl echoed through the forest. Much like a wolf's butsomething about it felt bigger, deeper, more.... monstrous.
Ben scrambled to his feet, leaves and dirt falling from his jacket. The forest around him was wrong in many ways. The trees were too tall, their bark shinning with faint bioluminescence glows. Flowers glowed softly on the ground. And in the distance, he could see lights....torches, maybe a village?
Another howl, closer this time.
"Right. Lost in another dimension, half my aliens not working, and something big wants to eat me." Ben checked the Omnitrix.
Green and ready. He scrolled through available aliens.
"Alright!, it's hero time."